Members Named to Energy and Sustainability Advisory Groups

Two new advisory groups have been named to advise Dartmouth on energy and sustainability issues.

The Dartmouth Sustainability Advisory Board, made up of 10 people who will serve three-year terms, will meet twice a year to provide guidance to Rosi Kerr '97, Dartmouth's director of sustainability. The board is part of the governance structure recommended in the 2017 Our Green Future report.

Members of the sustainability board will support Kerr in long-term strategic planning and will identify sustainability opportunities and challenges. They will be guides and advocates for sustainability at Dartmouth and will help develop relationships with others to ensure stewardship of sustainability as part of Dartmouth's mission.

"It will be good to begin working with these thought leaders and experts," says Kerr. "I know they will challenge Dartmouth to ask the right questions as we pursue sustainability leadership."

The other body is a new Ad Hoc Working Group on Energy, whose members will work with Kerr's office to provide recommendations to College leadership as Dartmouth develops a plan to create a more sustainable energy system. The group will be convened as needed to provide guidance and may oversee consultants or consider research that provides insight into Dartmouth's energy future and the impacts of various alternatives.

Several people are members of both groups. The working group will meet in February and will aim to conclude its work in the early summer of 2020, when it will present a report to Dartmouth's senior leaders.

The Sustainability Advisory Board members:

• Sarah Alexander '14, Blue Haven Initiative
• Sara Cavin '04, Willing Hands
• Chach Curtis '86, Tuck '94, SunCommon
• Walker Holmes '00, Trust for Public Land
• Jenna Musco '11, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies '21
• Dan Reicher '78, Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance and a lecturer at Stanford Law School
• John Sterman '77, professor of management at MIT's Sloan School of Management and professor at MIT's Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
• Shana Weber, Office of Sustainability, Princeton University
• Austin Whitman '99, Climate Neutral

Members of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Energy:

• Alexis Abramson, Thayer School of Engineering dean and professor of engineering
• Stephen Doig '82, managing director of research at the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society 
• Jim Hourdequin '97, Lyme Timber
• Richard Howarth, Dartmouth professor and chair of environmental studies
• Lee Lynd, Dartmouth professor of engineering
• Dan Reicher '78, Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance and a lecturer at Stanford Law School
• John Sterman '77, professor of management at MIT's Sloan School of Management and professor at MIT's Institute for Data, Systems, and Society

Kerr says planning is in the works for a Dartmouth forum in the spring at which experts in the energy field will discuss systems, technologies, and processes Dartmouth could consider implementing to achieve sustainability goals set in 2017 by President Philip J. Hanlon '77.

The goals are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 2010 levels by 50 percent by 2025 and by 80 percent by 2050; transition the campus heating system from No. 6 fuel oil to renewable sources by 2025; and establish a better system to distribute energy across campus, improving efficiency by 20 percent.

The two-day event, tentatively planned for April, will include meetings of the advisory board and the working group and a session that will be open to the public.

Information about Dartmouth's energy future is available at the Green Energy Project.

Susan J. Boutwell can be reached at susan.j.boutwell@dartmouth.edu